Taking Heart by June Gray, Wilette Youkey Page B

as soon as he picked
up the phone.
    “Hi, Eric.”
    He laughed, in excitement, in relief. “I was just thinking about you!”
    “Funny, because I was just thinking about you.”
    He closed his eyes and lay back on the bed. “Really?” he asked huskily.
“What were you thinking? And don’t skimp on the details.”
    Ren gave a surprised snort. “God, you are so sleazy. That’s not why I
called you.”
    He opened his eyes and grinned. “Well, it was worth a try. What’s up? How
have you been?” Are you over Ben yet?
    “I saw you on television.” For the first time, he heard the shortness in
her words. Ren was apparently not happy.
    Eric folded one arm behind his head. “Oh? What was I doing?”
    “Partying and picking up women,” she said with distaste.
    “Oh.”
    “I hope you haven't started doing cocaine again, too, because I don't
think it's great for your heart.”
    “Wait a minute!” he said, sitting up. “Not that that’s any of your
business, but no, I haven’t started taking drugs again. Thank you.”
    “I thought you said you wanted to be a better man?”
    “I do!”
    “It certainly didn’t look like it. Even the host of the show was saying
you’d reverted back to your old ways.”
    He took a deep breath. “Are you angry because I’m partying and drinking
with people I haven’t seen in months, or is something else bothering you?”
Suddenly, her words sunk in. “You saw me picking up women.”
    “I saw you with a woman on national television,” she said. “Right after
my sisters asked me about you.”
    “You told your sisters about me?” he asked. “What did you say?”
    He heard some finger-snapping . “Hey, Eric,
focus!”
    Despite her anger, he felt a little bit of happiness warming his chest.
He must actually mean something to Ren if she was telling her sisters about
him. “I’ve really missed you, Ren.”
    “That’s not what it looked like on television,” she said, the hard edge
in her voice starting to subside. When she sighed, he imagined all of the hot
air leaving her body in surrender. “I’m sorry. I know I have no right to be
jealous.”
    He smiled. “Being jealous is not so bad. At least it tells me you’re
still thinking about me.”
    “Seeing you flirting with a beautiful woman on television, that was…
hard. I didn't expect to feel that way.”
    “If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t slept with anyone since, you
know, you.”
    Ren was quiet on her end; he could almost see her biting her lower lip.
God, he wanted to bite her lower lip. “It does, but it doesn’t. I have no claim
on you, Eric. You’re free to date whoever you want,” she finally said.
    “Are you saying you don’t want me to wait for you?”
    “I don’t know. I can't ask you to do that,” she said. “But I don’t want
to cut you out of my life completely.”
    “What do youwant, Ren?”
    “I want to be free. Of everything.”
    “Then let’s go away. Let’s take a vacation to Monte Carlo.”
    She laughed softly. “That’s a little out of my price range. The bakery’s
not doing that well,” she said. “I’ve really missed talking to you,
Eric. I’m sorry I was a bit of a bitch. I just… I didn’t like seeing you with
other women. But I guess I’d better get used to it.”
    “I guess it's too much to hope that you're over Ben already, right?”
    “Not yet. And even if I were, you live in Los Angeles and I live in
Chicago. It would never work out between us.”
    “You’ve had a long distance relationship before and made it work.”
    “And look how that turned out.”
    “We can make it work, Ren,” he said with a conviction that even he wasn't
entirely buying.
    “You're probably right,” she said. “But I think, for the time being, we
should remain friends.”
    He snickered. “So, let me get this straight. You called me to bust my
balls about flirting with other women, and now you’re telling me to go ahead
and date said other women?”
    Ren sputtered